Repeat offender sentenced to jail for violating trading ban

An Ontario woman who violated a 15-year trading ban imposed by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) was sentenced on Tuesday to 12 months in jail, the regulator said in a release.

April Vuong of Kitchener, Ont. pleaded guilty in September to violating a 15-year trading ban imposed by the OSC in November 2013 for quasi-criminal offences related to securities trading. The Ontario Court of Justice in Toronto issued her sentence this week.

In 2014, Vuong used an alias and actively solicited a Canadian resource company to raise capital for a mining project, negotiating the terms of the proposed deal and producing a debenture term sheet to further the transaction, the OSC release says.

On July 5, 2018, following a four-week jury trial in Brampton, Ont., Vuong and her husband, Hao Quach, were found guilty of committing fraud over $5,000. This matter also involved illegal acts related to securities trading by Vuong. Following the guilty verdict, Vuong and Quach were each sentenced in October to six years in the penitentiary, the release says.

The investigation was conducted by the Joint Serious Offenses Team, an enforcement partnership between the OSC, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Financial Crime program and the Ontario Provincial Police Anti-Rackets Branch. To date, the JSOT has pursued 43 matters involving 61 accused.